Family mourns 5-year-old girl killed in early morning house fire

October 12 2013 - A fire broke out around midnight at the home of Joey Mims in the 2200 block of Riley Alley, near Lamar and Airways. Mims and two others, an adult and child managed to escape the house before fire crews arrived. Five-year-old Mya Shorter, Mim's daughter, was unable to be retrieved from the house in time. The cause of the fire is still unknown. (Kyle Kurlick/Special to The Commercial Appeal)

October 12 2013 - A fire broke out around midnight at the home of Joey Mims in the 2200 block of Riley Alley, near Lamar and Airways. Mims and two others, an adult and child managed to escape the house before fire crews arrived. Five-year-old Mya Shorter, Mim's daughter, was unable to be retrieved from the house in time. The cause of the fire is still unknown. (Family photo)

Jerkesta Mims stood on the porch of the charred house where her 5-year-old niece died early Saturday morning. Tears streamed down her face as she stared out into the pouring rain.

When she had first arrived at the Orange Mound house after midnight Saturday, her brother and his girlfriend were inconsolable because they had been unable to save their daughter, Mya Shorter, a kindergartner at Magnolia Elementary School.

Joey Mims, Mya's father, tried to keep himself busy by moving what was left of his personal items from the house near Lamar and Airways. His singed facial hair and the burns on his arms and legs showed signs of his struggle to save his daughter.

He said he tried to douse the flames by throwing water onto them, to no avail. His girlfriend, Mya's mother, was also in the house, along with one of her other children. "I should've let her sleep with us," Joey Mims said.

Mya was on the top bunk in a room she shared with her 7-year-old brother. When the fire awakened him, Joey Mims said, the boy ran from the house. The family plans the get the boy counseling.

Mya's other sibling was not at home at the time.

"I'm still in shock. It's like it's not even real," Joey Mims said.

One small powder-blue sandal remained unscathed in the front yard of the brick home that Mims said did have a smoke detector. He thinks the batteries were dead because it didn't go off.

Neither the cause of the fire nor the cause of Mya's death have been determined, according to Memphis Fire Department spokesman Lt. Wayne Cooke.

Joey Mims said Mya loved going to school.

"She would say, ‘Get up daddy I'm ready,' and it would be 20 or 30 minutes before it was time to leave."

Mya's aunt, Jerkesta, said, "If you were sad, she would make you smile. If you didn't feel like talking, she would sit there until you talked to her. I came over here most of the time just to see her."

An employee at the Poplar location of On The Border, Joey Mims is the sole provider for the family. Everything was lost in the fire except for a table his late mother had given him. Family members provided clothes to wear Saturday.